Typically a person may organize associates (e.g., family, friends, co-workers, business associates, creditors, etc.) with a number of electronic software applications. These software applications may include an electronic address book, electronic mail, voice mail, etc. At times these tools may be integrated. For example, an electronic mail software application may be coupled with an electronic address book application to allow a person to auto-populate an electronic mail address field on the electronic mail software application with the electronic mail address of the associate with whom the user of the software would like to correspond.
In general, electronic mail software includes an inbox that displays unread e-mail in a list of received e-mail from various associates. The address book software application typically lists the associates alphabetically by last name.
A limitation of these software applications is that they have limited capability to organize and express personal relationships between the user and a variety of different types of associates. Furthermore, these software applications do very little to describe relationships the user might have with each associate. For example, as time goes by, the address book may include names of friends that may seem unfamiliar which may not have been used in quite some time. Some purposely and others unintentionally. These software tools do not include a way to help a user manage and nurture friendships.